Authentic Assessment

Yea,  for alternative testing!  Now we are talking about progression in the education system and the way that we assess academic success. The video from Edutopia gives us an inside view of authentic assessment and what it entitles and requires from our young minds.  Authentic assessment is a performance task in where students are asked to apply real life application to a specific skill or subject.  This truly is an authentic assessment of each students ability to problem solve.  Each assessment requires students to think critically and work on a team as well as to be able to formulate their ideas for their peers and others to understand.  These are all skills that are necessary for an individual's success in the real-world.  Authentic assessment is a push away from multiple choice  test to performance task that require students to apply real life skills and application. This country is stuck on the idea that a standardized test makes an individual and measures their knowledge and skill, but all it really does is measure how well they can take a test.  How often do you take a test in the real-world (academia aside)? How about never. We are setting up our children for a huge obstacle.  How can they apply their knowledge to the real-world if they do not know what is going to be asked of them?

Teachers have a unique advantage and disadvantage.  While what goes on in our classrooms is our business we are still held accountable by the same standardized tests our students are.  Teachers are less likely to try out this authentic assessment for fear of consequences such as loss of employment.  As time closes on standardized test my assessments look like an imitation of the MCT2.  This summer is a time to try new things and with new things comes new assessments.  However, most performance assessments are over a period of weeks, giving each student ample time for their project.  Weeks is summer school is the entire course.  I have chosen that for summer school the 7th grade math class will have to pass on an authentic assessment. They will have a few mini performance tasks that you can equate to a science lab.  

In 7th grade, MCT2 is everything to the school and administrators, and unfortunately,  they do not like things that deter from MCT2 type of assessments.  There is so much pressure on teacher and students to succeed that it takes away from much, even childhood.  I recently read an article in USA Today by Bruce Kluger called “No Child Left Alone.” This article talked about the extreme amounts of stress and anxiety placed on young children to do well on these tests.  He's right we as educators place so much weight on these standardized test at the end of the year.  We  feel the pressure and we transfer it to our students. Sherry Cleary, executive director of the New York City Early Childhood Professional Development Institute as City University of New York , says “what is at stake is the children's perception of themselves as learners.  Kids are supposed to ask questions; schools are supposed to provide the path to answers. But now we're looking to the children for the answers – and the accountability.  We're telling them that if they screw up, they don't have a future.” Teachers are under pressure and it should stay that way.  Our children do not need to be stressed over one test.  Authentic assessments give students a chance to showcase and present their many talents and skills, yet simultaneously achieving mastery of the same objectives in the frameworks.  Hmmm..... But because administrators are so unwilling to change their mind that intense remediation of MCT2 practice questions leads to success teachers are restricted. Administrators leave little leeway for teachers who teach state tested subjects. But that's not going to stop me from mini performance tasks or projects; instead of a roadblock, I'll think of it as a speed bump. Summer school will be a time of experiment, a trial period, where I will be able to see what performance tasks work best.  Summer school, here I come!